Daddy Issues
by recursivetomatoes
Summary: Lorna has finally found her place among the mutants of the Underground. When daddy dearest pays a visit, he puts everything Lorna's built at risk.
1. Prologue

Daddy Dearest: A Gifted Fanfic

Prologue

Movie night began as an unusually calm affair. Lorna, Marcos, Clarice, Johnny and Sonya were chilling on the couch watching Wall-E when the TV shorted out. Suddenly, the building seemed to shake on its foundation. Electronics started floating in the air, and keys flew out of unsuspecting mutants' pockets.

"Lorna…" Marcos sighed, not ready to get into it again with his girlfriend. But she just shook her head.

"It's not me."

The words were enough to push John into action. He leapt off the couch and stared intently to the side. "There is someone here who doesn't belong," he declared ominously. He sniffed the air. "And they're getting closer."

As the mutants got into fighting position, pieces of metal started vibrating even more intensely, creating a sound almost like music.

And then, every piece of metal in the base flew together and formed an archway. In that archway stood a man with a decidedly purple costume complete with a cape and a decidedly purple-and-pink (possibly magenta?) helmet. Magneto.

Marcos was the first to react, falling back onto the couch. "Holy shit."

"OMG, that's Magneto." Clarice couldn't believe it.

"Lorna, Marcos, attack. Clarice, start evacuating everyone," John ordered.

Lorna stepped forward as everyone stood defensively, anticipating a violent battle involving quite a few shards of metal. She glanced at her friends, and then looked Magneto and sighed. "Dad, what happened to calling first?"


	2. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay. We (RecursiveTomatoes) have recently graduated from college! This chapter is dedicated to our number 1 fan and reviewer, Flash4818. Hope you like it!

Daddy Dearest: A Gifted Fanfic

Chapter 1

Just a moment earlier, Marcos had been watching a movie with his favorite people in the world. The next moment, an intruder interrupted his bliss. But not just any intruder... it was Magneto, the Master of Magnetism, the leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants. John shouted out orders, and Marcos heard his name but couldn't process the meaning of the words. Without thinking, Marcos launched himself from the couch and was primed to attack when he finally processed the sight in front of him. Magneto was standing in the common area. Magneto. "Holy shit," he said. Marcos twisted his body to check on Lorna but lost his balance and fell back onto the couch. Clarice formed a portal and teleported below to start evacuating the compound. The other mutants stayed in defensive positions but remained still, staring warily at Magneto.

"Dad, what happened to calling first?" Lorna spoke. "Seriously, Dad, you're embarrassing me."

In that moment, it was almost as if he forgot about the intrusion and the looming threat. All Marcos could do was gape at Lorna. He did a double take. "Excuse me. Did you just say dad?" He had to ask. But once the words left his mouth, it hit him. The similarities were damning. The charisma. The dangerous edge. But most of all, the powers. Before him stood two mutants with magnificent magnetic powers.

He made eye contact with Lorna, who shrugged sheepishly.

Clarice reappeared next to Johnny. "Everyone is safe. What do we do now?"

Clenching his jaw, John gestured for everyone to go behind him. Keeping a neutral expression of his face, he stared at Magneto. Although John kept silent, his eyes said everything. He would do anything to protect his friends, even if it meant sacrificing himself, but he would not provoke, only guard. Magneto took a step forward. John dropped into a crouch, his eyes following Magneto's slightest movement from the rising of the chest at each breath to the micro-expressions on Magneto's face. The honed skills of a tracker made John a talented hunter, and now that he was the prey, these same skills kept him on edge and prepared to defend.

Lorna covered her mouth, holding back a snicker. "John, it's ok." She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. "Everybody, this is my dad." Lorna gestured to the magenta-clad mutant. "Dad, these are my friends."

"Ohmigod!" Clarice exclaimed, "So sorry, sir. I thought you were Magneto. It's a pleasure to meet you."

She extended her hand, and Magneto floated over to shake her hand while John glared suspiciously.

Marcos watched and briefly wondered if someone should say something to Clarice, but the idea quickly escaped his mind. He had other preoccupations. His girlfriend's father was Magneto. The mother of his child was Magneto's daughter. Thinking about it made the idea seem more real. It was too much. Shaking his head in disbelief, he strode over to stand next to his girlfriend. But instead of saying anything, he crossed his arms and waited for an explanation.

Seeing Marcos approach, Lorna froze, expecting him to yell or at least talk to her sternly. But faced with his silence, she realized that the quiet was even worse. She needed to know his reaction, how he felt now that he knew her secret, the secret that had haunted her since she was first reunited with her birth father.

Lorna stared at Marcos, and he stared back. Then, he took a step forward and she almost retreated but instead steeled herself for the oncoming confrontation. He stepped even closer, and wrapped his arms around her in a firm yet soothing hug. She let her shoulders fall, not realizing how tense she had been, and hugged him back.

Someone cleared their throat loudly from right next to them, and Marcos immediately dropped his arms and jumped back. Magneto stood mere feet away, his arms crossed and his eyes trailing over Marcos, sizing up the younger mutant. Although Magneto was not quite as tall in person as Marcos had been led to believe, the Master of Magnetism cut an imposing figure, and the metal helmet leant the man a regal air. As if he could read minds—that wasn't one one of his powers, though he knew many mutants who could do such a feat—Magneto reached up and removed the helmet.

"It's been too long, my dear."

"Yes…"

"Aren't you going to introduce me to…" Magneto paused for effect and eyed Marcos, before saying, "your friend."

"Dad, you never visit. You haven't even called in months. You and the X-Men dropped off the face of the earth! And now you suddenly show up without calling and freak everyone out. How do you expect me to react?"

"You can't tell me that you're pregnant and expect me not to come see you."

Lorna frowned, realization blossoming in her. "But…I didn't tell you."

"Ah, right." Magneto ran his fingers through his hair. "I meant…"

Lorna narrowed her eyes at her father. "How did you know?"

"Well, you know how much I care about you. Even when I'm not around, especially when I'm not around, I like to keep tabs on you."

"You were spying on me? Ugh. I wish I could say that I can't believe it, but I believe it!" Lorna threw her arms up and stomped off, but was intercepted by Marcos.

Marcos placed an unsteady hand on Lorna's shoulder. "How could you not tell me that your dad is Magneto!" he said.

She brushed his hand off her shoulder. "It's not something that I like to advertise."

Her explanation didn't sit well with him. He frowned and thought back to what he knew about her family. "But you told me that your parents died in a plane crash. Why would you lie about something like that?" Marcos asked.

Lorna's eyes flashed with anger and the metal in the room started vibrating. She took a deep breath and the metal returned to normal. "I wasn't lying! That was my adoptive parents, the people that raised me. Magneto is my bio dad."

She was hoping her explanation would appease Marcos, but he still had so many questions. He paused to think, and his eyes lowered to Lorna's abdomen. "That means…our unborn child is Magneto's grandchild! What if they take after him? What if they're a psychopath?"

"First of all, I'm nothing like my dad. Second, my dad is not a psychopath. He's just a bit extreme."

Lorna turned and stomped out of the room to find somewhere private. Marcos watched her retreating form and wished he had found a more tactful way to phrase his questions. He wasn't trying to accuse her. He wasn't even angry. He was just trying to figure out what this new information meant for his makeshift family within the Underground, and more importantly, what it meant for his and Lorna's emerging family.

Marcos stared at the empty space that Lorna had once inhabited and took stalk of his feelings of betrayal. He had never felt so disappointed in himself. Did Lorna not trust him? He liked to think that he was type of person who wouldn't judge someone based on their family, but maybe he had said or done something that made her hesitant to tell him. He wracked his brain but couldn't think of anything. Maybe if he hadn't been so judgmental toward mutant extremism and had shown more understanding, Lorna would have told him about her family history.

He felt a hand rest on his shoulder, but he really didn't want John's sympathy at the moment. He looked up to tell John to give him some space, but it wasn't John at all. Marcos gaped at the magenta glove-covered hand. Magneto was standing next to Marcos. Magneto's hand was resting on Marcos's shoulder.

Magneto smirked. "Hello, son."


	3. Chapter 2

My Dad Magneto

Marcos was in a room alone with Magneto. Magneto; the Master of Magnetism; the leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants, sometimes even the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Altogether, Magneto was not someone you wanted to be alone in a room with. Marcos had been stuck in a room with many unsavory mutants, but never before had that mutant been freaking Magneto.

"Hi?" Marcos said, inching away from his future father-in-law.

"You can relax, my boy. I'm not going to pull the iron out of your bloodstream." Magneto surveyed Marcos. "No, Lorna would not be happy if I did that."

"Thanks?"

Magneto always made a point of cataloguing potential allies', or potential enemies', powers. Though he had not yet seen Marcos's powers in action, he had some knowledge from Lorna. "Your powers are light-based? I do wonder if the little one will take after you or Lorna. Or neither, I suppose, like the twins."

Marcos frowned. He only had half an idea what Magneto was talking about.

"Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't feel so bad, if Lorna didn't mention her siblings either."

"She has siblings?"

"Half-siblings to be exact. The twins spend most of their time running around with the Avengers now."

"She never mentioned them."

"We'll have to have a family dinner," Magneto says. Then, he adds with a look of disdain, "Perhaps I'll even invite the robot."

Marcos still felt only half in-the-loop and crossed his arms over his chest. "No amount of 'family' dinners will make up for what you did." Marcos punctuated the statement by shoving Magneto. "I'll never do to our kid what you did to Lorna!"

Caught off-guard, Magneto stumbled a few steps backward. This kind of anger wasn't unusual for his interactions with Lorna, but she was family and had every right to be angry. Even the X-Men typically treated him with more respect than this. Magneto wouldn't tolerate such disrespect from just anyone.

The lull gave Marcos enough time for his action to register in his head. He had pushed Magneto. Magneto. The Magneto. Lorna's dad, Magneto. Unfortunately for Marcos, the proper follow-up to this seemed in the moment to be more anger rather than an apology.

"How dare you show up like this!" he spat.

The room rumbled, and metal fixtures shook, as Magneto stepped forward. Magneto closed his eyes for a moment, and the room returned to a calm still.

"I'll forgive you because you clearly love Lorna and care for my future grandchild, but I would watch yourself," Magneto warned, his voice lowering an octave near the end.

"You abandoned her, left her to a mental institution. Do you know how fragile she was? She still has nightmares."

Magneto turned his head away. "There's is not a moment that I don't regret abandoning my dear Lorna. I was only trying to keep her safe and thought that the safest she could be was away from me." He balled his fists. "Those so-called doctors will pay for what they did to her."

As angry as Marcos was at Magneto for abandoning Lorna to the mental institution, he was not convinced that Magneto should be raising any children. Marcos could picture an alternate reality where Magneto raised Lorna to be a maniacal supervillain. At least in the current reality, circumstance had brought Marcos together with Lorna.

Part of Marcos wanted to enable some kind of reconciliation between Lorna and her father, but most of Marcos just wanted to protect her feelings. "I think you should leave," Marcos said. He turned away from Magneto, not wanting to see the emotion on the face of the most notorious mutant of all time.

* * *

Meanwhile...

"You know, I can definitely see it."

Lorna looked up to see Clarice hovering by the doorway. Clarice gave a small wave and stepped into the room when Lorna didn't say anything.

"You have the same powers," Clarice added.

"Don't remind me."

"I know you're angry at him, and you don't have to give him another chance if you don't want to, but..."

Lorna glared at Clarice. "I am giving him a chance. I let him back into my life after everything that happened, and the only reason we fell out of contact this time is because he faked his own death!"

Clarice brushes her hair out of her eyes. "There are some bad mutants in my family. But not bad in the mutant extremist kind of way." She lowers her voice to a whisper. "Bad in the monster kind of way. Bad in the 'never going to change' way." She reaches out to touch Lorna's arm, and Lorna lets her. Clarice continues, softly, "Magneto's worked with the X-Men before. If you think he's really changed or really can change, let him. But if you think he's dangerous for the baby, don't feel bad about closing the door."

They sat there for a moment, and then Clarice stood and left the room. Lorna stayed in the silence and thought.


End file.
